Page 26 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

Cebrinne

“ D on’t lie him back until his heart stops.”

Halfway through easing Pheolix down, Aegir halted at Xiane’s order.

She watched him, expression unreadable. “It will stop,” she said quietly, as though it were a simple matter of fact, then returned to her assessment of Pheolix’s skin.

Naiad flesh healed rapidly, and the punctures had all closed when we’d pulled him inside the cave.

But they seemed to be reopening now, black and shriveling.

Caving in. The marks from the creature’s teeth ran in strange circles, and I hated to think what shape its mouth had been.

That, had fate not supplied us with Pheolix, it might have bitten Selena instead.

Xiane lifted a short blade from her belt, cutting the black tissue away. “Force it back out the way it came in and keep his circulation going in the right direction. Don’t allow his blood to clot. The venom is doing that already.”

Pheolix’s fingers flexed as she sliced into him, though he didn’t make a sound. He slumped against the wall. A pallor overshadowed his visage, made even more eerie in the blue light.

Selena glanced at his eyes, barely open and hazily aimed at the floor. Then rolled Pheolix just enough to reveal a long slash in his side.

Xiane swore under her breath. “I have his arm, you take over there. The venom spreads faster than you can drain it. It will feel like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket. What’s his name? ”

Selena’s teeth cut into her lip. “Pheolix.”

“Keep breathing, Pheolix.” Xiane sent an expectant glance at me.

Was I supposed to take over encouraging him? I leaned across his torso, the black below his skin tainting his blood, and pushed it away from his lungs. It pressed back, a river raging against a tiny dam. His breathing tightened, airways narrowing, heart rate increasing.

Lub dub, lub dub, lub dub, lub dub, lub dub.

“Don’t be alarmed,” Xiane said. “He’s about to lose—”

Pheolix’s head fell limply.

“Consciousness. Pay attention to his lungs. And get ready,” she added towards Aegir.

Lubdub, Lubdub, lubdub, lubdub, lubdub.

“Stay with us, Pheolix,” Selena murmured. She gave a sharp inhale as a thin trickle of black oozed from the slash in Pheolix’s side. Xiane nodded. “Keep pressing it out.”

“There’s so much,” Selena whispered back.

Pheolix’s lungs convulsed. I paused, unsure if the jerk of his ribs came from me.

“Ready, braids?” Xiane asked.

Lubdublubdubludublubdubludub.

Aegir gave a single nod.

Lubdublubdubludublubdubludub.

Lub.

Silence.

“Squeeze his heart,” Xiane ordered. “Squeeze it now.”

Aegir’s brows pressed together in concentration. He set his fingertips against Pheolix. The drone’s chest contracted in response.

Sound returned. But it was wrong. The heartbeats drummed too close together. Rapid and frantic, almost more chilling than the silence from the moment before .

“There. Now. Lie him down,” Xiane said the words as calmly as someone waiting for their tea to cool. We pulled Pheolix from the wall, laying him flat. “Stand back.”

We pressed away, and Aegir leaned in on one knee. “Anything I should know?”

Xiane shook her head. “No idea.”

He opened and closed his fist, bright light lacing his fingers like a blinding ribbon of static, then thrust his open palm against Pheolix’s chest.

A bolt cracked the air, and Pheolix’s body gave a violent jerk.

Silence.

“Again.”

Once more, Aegir flooded Pheolix’s heart with a small jolt.

Selena watched his muscles seize with wide eyes, hands over her mouth.

The scent of burnt flesh tinged the damp air. Curled softly, Pheolix’s fingers twitched. Then his chest rose and fell in a single, erratic pump.

Lub. Dub.

Aegir stood, and we rushed back to our places. Something splashed behind us. The Naiad who dove into the water a few minutes before hurried to us now, a long, steel syringe in her fingers. Selena leaned to one side as she stood over Pheolix, injecting the antitoxin into his thigh.

“Moment of truth,” Xiane said as Aegir took a step away.

“We either made it in time or we didn’t.

” The Naiad with the syringe, Sicia, knelt beside Selena with her own knife.

The near-silent sound of severing skin turned my stomach as she set to work on the gash.

I gritted my teeth, focusing on the dark splotches across his ribs.

Guiding them backwards to their origin points.

Pheolix gave a shaky breath, the sound ghosting through his lips. A sheen of sweat clung to his forehead, the tiny beads sparkling in the blue light. His eyes parted.

Sicia laid her bloody knife down beside her knee .

Color began to return to Pheolix’s skin, his eyes cracking wider. He tried to sit up, and Aegir took his upper arm, hauling him back against the rock. With labored breath, he watched his own chest as the black venom began to fade, the spider webs whisking away with each draw.

Xiane laid her knife down as well, studying the swollen muscles in Pheolix’s arm. Selena’s shoulders sagged. Aegir clapped Pheolix’s chest. “Back with us, gnat?”

Pheolix gave a weak smile.

“Gnat?” Xiane turned to Aegir. “He’s a drone?”

I nodded. “That’s how he was born.”

“He was made ,” Selena corrected, her voice thin.

Xiane sank against her heels. “This is the strangest day I’ve seen in years.”

Pheolix propped himself higher with his good arm, his brows raised as he looked over us. “Well, that was fun,” he sighed. “Who’s up next?”

Selena burst into tears.

“Idiot,” I spat at him, snatching her hand and pulling my sister to her feet. She was still wearing Aegir’s shirt, the hem ending at her thighs. I tucked her hair behind her ears. “He’s fine, Senna. Moon-damned Naiad is like a cockroach. We’ll probably never be rid of him.”

“Whatever you were planning to do in these tunnels,” Sicia said, watching as I dashed Selena’s cheeks, “I’d recommend that he not participate. At least, not today.”

Aegir’s hand found his eyes. He nodded in agreement, rubbing a notch between his brows.

Xiane watched him coolly, dark eyes suddenly shrewd once more. “What are you doing here, Aegir of Venusia?”

Aegir met her gaze, his hand roaming to his chin to scrub at the stubble growing along his jaw. We hadn’t offered Aegir’s name, but there was only one Videre of the Venusian Sea. He considered her in silence, weighing his words .

One of the Naiads standing in the background shifted over her feet.

The glint of metal caught my eye, a knife belted to each of their waists.

They’d surrounded us while we weren’t looking.

Somewhere behind me, water dripped. Impatience tingled, igniting the need to fidget and move, but I forced myself to stand still.

“Research,” Aegir said slowly.

“Research.” Xiane’s chin lowered. “What research are you conducting in the forgotten colony of Paria?”

Aegir’s mouth opened.

“We’re here to find a stone,” I said.

“ Ceba ,” Selena hissed.

Aegir’s eyes darted to meet mine, unsurprised.

“She lasted longer than I thought she would,” Pheolix said, arm wrapped around his side. He pushed to his feet, and we all stepped away, offering him room. He stole a small step toward Selena. “All right there, heiress?”

Selena turned her head, nose and cheeks still rosy. Blue eyes cut the air at him, glaring and thick with shine. She bared her teeth, fists clenching into tight balls. “Why would you do that? Stick out your arm like a fool, straight into its mouth?”

Pheolix coughed a soft laugh. “Call me a thrill seeker.”

Anger blared, a heated metallic scent washing the cave, and for the first time in my life, I wondered if my sister might succumb to violence. “Enough jokes,” she seethed. “If I hear another joke leave your tongue, so help me, I’ll rip it out.”

Pheolix smiled. “That would please Cebrinne, I'm sure.”

She inhaled so hard that tendons sprang from her slender neck. Then turned on her heel, marching into the tunnels.

Sicia watched her leave. “Does she know where she’s going?”

I sent Pheolix a glare as venomous as the black we’d leached from his body. “No. ”

“If you’re seeking the sacred stone,” Xiane said, turning every head toward her. “I know where to find it.”